A couple of days after receiving the Rutland Water Fly Fishers August Newsletter in the post and suitably armed with it's valuable information I decided to pay a visit to the top of the North Arm on Rutland despite the intermittent torrential rain that was falling that Saturday.

In less than two foot of water I managed to get four offers either on a Cruncher Booby or a small dry detached foam body daddy long legs. I don't know who was more surprised on the first proper offer as previously I was hooking up weed nearly every cast, then when it moved and instead of weed it turned out to be a small rainbow in the 1lb - 1lb 4oz class which then gave a good account of itself despite its small size.

After a long wait later I connected with the stunning 5lb 5oz fish in the attached photos on the dry detached foam body daddy long legs. I had an audience at this point as an angler had turned up and started chatting with me just as I connected with this beauty so it was a bit nerve racking making sure I did not lose what was obviously going to be the best rainbow of the season so far for me.

A bit later I had a small brownie around 1lb 10oz also on the same dry daddy long legs. Like all the brownies I catch I returned that fish all OK none the worse for it's adventure. Finally I had another small rainbow this time on the Cruncher Booby, this slipped the hook via a bad knot. By 6:45pm it looked a bit dead and now with very few fish moving I decided to pack up.

Three other anglers were up there in the shallows with me. One returned a small rainbow and that was all the action I saw.

It was absolutely fabulous to catch that stunning overwintered rainbow with a huge shovel of a tail. To catch a fish of this fantastic quality from Rutland is what makes both me and many others go trout fishing. It had been feeding on the hordes of corixa that are in the very shallow water and it also had a single stickleback in it.

A stop off at Rutland lodge and Nigel Savage kindly witnessed this fish and took some photos so I could submit it as an entry into the Rutland Water Fly Fishers biggest rainbow of the season competition.

Anglian Water have a news article about this catch on their website in the Rutland Water week ending 22 August page

The previous day I shared a boat on a very windswept Grafham with Rick Barlow, sometimes blogger on this site. The highlight of the day turned out to be catching a huge pike that easily bottomed out my 15lb scales after giving a very good account of itself easily fully hooping over the Platinum XD Competition rod I was using. So two personal bests in two consecutive days fishing on Anglian Waters two premier trout fishing reservoirs :)

Outstanding!